The University College of St.Mark & St.John, Plymouth

The College of St.Mark & St.John (known as Marjon) is situated in Plymouth, Devon. The college is highly rated in national league tables and has been ranked top ten in the National Student Survey for the past two years.
Many people think that Marjon is part of Plymouth University, but it is actually affiliated to Exeter University and all degrees are awarded from there. Marjon and Plymouth Uni are completely separate, and there is a lot of ...
...around 5000 students; Plymouth on the other hand have around 30,000 students! So if you are looking for a much smaller university in the South West, then Marjon is the place to come!

Believe it or not Marjon has a 160 year old history. The college first began in Chelsea as a teacher training college, however it moved from London to Plymouth in 1973. The college still specialises in teacher training, however nowadays Marjon is mainly ... more

The College of St.Mark & St.John (known as Marjon) is situated in Plymouth, Devon. The college is highly rated in national league tables and has been ranked top ten in the National Student Survey for the past two years.
Many people think that Marjon is part of Plymouth University, but it is actually affiliated to Exeter University and all degrees are awarded from there. Marjon and Plymouth Uni are completely separate, and there is a lot of rivalry between the two! Marjon is a lot smaller that Plymouth, with only around 5000 students; Plymouth on the other hand have around 30,000 students! So if you are looking for a much smaller university in the South West, then Marjon is the place to come!

Believe it or not Marjon has a 160 year old history. The college first began in Chelsea as a teacher training college, however it moved from London to Plymouth in 1973. The college still specialises in teacher training, however nowadays Marjon is mainly known for the sports. There is a wide range of other courses that you apply for though.

So why did I choose to study at Marjon? Well there were a number of different reasons really. I wanted to study somewhere local so I looked into both Plymouth Uni and Marjon. After both open days, I had decided straight away that Marjon was the university for me. I much preferred the choice of course at Marjon, I felt it suited me better. There was also the fact that I only needed 160 points at A Level to get in; which is basically a C and 2 D's...and this isn't because the courses are aimed specifically at people who aren't overly intelligent, it's because they feel that everyone should be given the opportunity to study...and quite rightly so! If I had chosen Plymouth, I would have needed about 240 points, which I actually had anyway...but I wasn't too keen on the course there in the end.
There are plenty more reasons why I chose Marjon, the fees are much cheaper, depending on what your course is, the fees are either £2,300 or £2,800 which is quite a saving in the end considering most universities are around £3000.
On top of all this, the year I joined (2006) they had started a new offer; all first year students would get a FREE wireless laptop to keep throughout your studies and beyond. The offer applies to all full and part time students. Well this sounded good enough to me! There were no catches either, as soon as you registered in September you were given the laptop.

THE CAMPUS
The campus itself is very nice, this was something that struck me straight away. It does look very welcoming when you first walk in. It's a small campus, theres a large grassy area in the middle with benches, which is lovely during the summer months. Then around this area are all the lecture theatres and classrooms. It is very easy to get around, I knew pretty much where everything was by the end of the first week!

ACCOMODATION
Now I don't actually live on campus, but if I had decided to then there is a lot of choice. The campus can accomadate around 500 students in both halls and the village houses.
I have looked around the halls, and they are fairly basic - you have your own bedroom, however the bathroom and kitchen areas are shared. Groups of 6 to 9 people can share. There are apparently a few single-sex twin rooms which are available if you want to share and there are 6 en suite rooms if you have special requirements.
The village houses have four or five study bedrooms withh a shared bathroom, kitchen and communal room.
You can choose to live off campus, there are plenty of houses and flats in Plymouth.

SPORTS CENTRE
There is a big sports centre in the uni and there are plenty of facillities. One thing that I liked was the fact there is a 25m indoor heated pool, this pool is open to the public, unfortunately there is no student discount given but it costs £2.50 for an adult swim. The pool is very useful for people like me who don't live on campus; if you are big gaps inbetween lectures then you can go for a swim to pass some time!
Other facillities are: a gym, squash courts, rock climbing wall, three sports halls, all weather surface for tennis, floodlit pitch for hockey and football. There are lots of different sports and activities you can take part in.

LIBRARY
The library is located in the centre of the campus and has three floors; it's a nice quiet place to study. There are IT suites in the library, however a wireless network is also available so you can bring your laptop with you.
There are over 150,000 books and there are multimedia resources available such as CD-roms, DVDs, videos and multimedia packs.

DINING AREAS AND SHOPS
There are a few different places where you can choose to eat. Firstly there is the main dining hall wheer you can buy cheap meals, then there is Le Cafe Rendez-Vous which has a really nice atmosphere; it's a bit more pricey in there though, then there is the Lion and Lamb Cafe bar which is located in the sports centre, you can get pub food in there. Lastly, of course there is SUB, which is the student union bar, you can buy cheap drinks in there and it is a good place to catch up with friends.
There are a few shops of campus too, the college shop which sells drinks, snacks, magazines and newspapers, and then there is a book shop where you can buy discounted books and stationary.

STUDENT UNION
You become a union member when you join Marjon. The SU team is managed by two full time students and a team of full time staff.
Inside the union is a big screen which is used for sporting events.
There are many clubs and societies you can join which are supported by the student union.

COURSES
For BA/BSc(Hons) programmes there are a range of combined honours and single honours programmes. The degrees usually last 3 years. There are lots of courses to choose from such as English literature, Media, Computing and Drama.
BEd(Hons) programmes are designed to to train highly qualified teachers. You can choose from Early years, primary or secondary.

THE AREA
One annoying thing is that Marjon is not in the city centre - although the city centre is only a short bus ride away. Marjon is located next door to Derriford Hospital so you can get on a bus straight away from outside there.
There is a lot to do in the city centre, there is a new shopping mall which only opened last year, there are also plenty of bars, restaurants, a cinema, theatre and lots more.

After being at Marjon for a year I am glad that I decided to go there, I feel I definitely made the right choice! The people are friendly and it really is a very welcoming place. 

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